Caged Beasts
by Sarah Haywood
Summary: Inuyasha, a human pup raised by wolves, has always been free to roam the Island. That is, until the new colony of humans capture him and try to make him 'civilized.' Can a wild creature like Inuyasha be tamed?
1. Lost Innocence

**Caged Beasts Chapter One:**

Lost Innocence

Even though everyone knows boys can't fly, when the human pup ran, anyone would swear his feet never touched the ground. Inuyasha flew across the beach, sniffing at the salty air, running so fast the sea foam was a blur. His calloused feet slowed and, panting, he stopped, sat on a rock, and looked at the moon. It was half of a circle that night, perfect for a hunt, as there was enough light to see one's way through the forest, but not enough to give your prey enough time to escape. Once Inuyasha had caught his breath, he got up and continued running, his feet tasting the frothy ends of the waves.

He was not running for pleasure on this night, and though he was hunting, there was to be no bloody haunch draped over his shoulders when he returned to the pack. Hopefully not, anyways. He was looking for Shippo, the red pelted pup who had a bushier tail than the many adult members of the pack. His parents had disappeared a few weeks ago and the rambunctious thing had run off in search. An honorable thing at any other time, but in these dangerous days, it was a step away from treason.

Inuyasha remembered with a pang how, once upon a time, he had not been allowed to run free on the beaches. The older members had thought that, looking upon the pup that look so unlike them, he would work strange magics on their tribe and offend the moon goddess, but, once he had proved himself to them, after a long ceremony involving him being torn apart by their teeth and still remaining loyal, they had begun to trust the child and value how his strange long paws could pull thorns from the bottoms of their feet and how his clever traps could kill faster and with less danger to the pack than the hunt could. They trusted him now, and looked to him for leadership, second only to his adopted brother, Sesshoumaru.

The human had been found twenty-six seasons ago, a wet and cold little toddler clinging tightly to a piece of wreckage. Many had wanted to eat him, but Izayoi, his adopted mother, had suckled him and protected him until he was old enough to watch out for himself.

But bad luck had, however, befallen the pack. Twelve seasons ago, other humans had infested the wolf's island. They chewed up half the forest with axes and fire, building strange caves with wood and planting shrubs and different grasses in long orderly rows that were savage and strange to the wild creatures of the island. He made sure to avoid their camps as he ran, sidestepping into the forest, following the secret trails made by his people and their prey generations ago. He zigzagged through the trees until he reached the claw-on-bark markers on the trees that signaled it was safe to go back to the beach.

He snarled as he looked back at the human encampment. It wouldn't surprise him if Shippo's parents were dead and skinned, for the humans were savages and it was not unknown for a wolf to go missing around the humans and never be seen again if not glimpsed lining the coats of their females. They would kill any wolf they found, whether harmless pup, a swift hunter in the prime of his youth, or old one with many seasons of wisdom between his blackened teeth.

Inuyasha continued his search. Sometimes some members of his pack, when they were angry, would accuse him of being like them, and, though he knew it was true, he would scuffle with the offending members, until, covered with scratches from his stone weapons, they would put their tails between their legs and apologize. Inuyasha was always glad when they took back their words. He liked to assure himself that, though he had their build, he was different from them in a hundred ways. No, he assured himself, he would never be like them.

With relief, he spotted Shippo, looking lost as he padded across the beach. Inuyasha, with the stealth of a hundred shadows, crept up behind him and picked him up by the pocket of fat where his head joined his head.

"What do you think you are doing?" he snarled.

Shippo laid his ears back in aggression, "I search for my mother and father. Let me go."

"I will not let you go," the human retorted in the yips and barks of his language, "You endanger the pack. What would the humans do to you if they caught you? They would either kill you, or send you back to the pack; with their traitors they call dogs at your heels, bringing our people to their downfall."

Shippo whimpered at these harsh words. Inuyasha felt himself soften. He was only a pup, after all, and still did not know the complex rules that governed the wolf pack.

"Come," he told the pup, restoring him to the floor, "I know of a she-wolf who has lost a pup. Maybe she will look after you until your parents come back." He did not tell the young one his suspicion that Shippo's parents were now keeping the humans warm as coats, instead he led the little wolf over to the trail that led into the forest and back to the den. He let Shippo walk in front, keeping a better eye on him lest he run off.

The Den was a large place, a clearing near the centre of the forest now littered with the sleeping bodies of the pack. Typically, in some other wolf pack perhaps, there would only be one litter of pups, the children of the alpha female and male, but this one, made up of every wolf on the three mile across island, had five litters of babies. This night was warm with the scent of them, fuzzy little balls of fur that squeaked and nuzzled to their mothers' sides for the milk that kept them alive. Surrounding the mothers was the rest of the pack, as if a barricade protecting the wolves' finest treasure.

Inuyasha had gotten down to all fours by this time, as it was more polite to be at eye level, and his height was threatening to some. He was comfortable at both levels, having spent most of his childhood crawling about with other pups in the caves where they played during the day.

He walked over to the first of the sleeping mothers and nudged her with the heel of his hand. She opened her yellow eyes, a snarl on her lips in the instinctual defense of her children which quickly disappeared when she saw Inuyasha for who he was.

"Inuyasha, why are you here," she asked.

"This is Shippo, the pup who ran away. He's brave, about the age of your children, his parents—"

"I remember," she said, kindness in her eyes towards the little one. Kikyo was always kind, which was why Inuyasha had trusted her with the pup. She had been kind throughout Inuyasha's life and was even kind when Inuyasha admitted he loved her after her belly had swelled with the waiting babies. "Come here, little one, and sleep."

Shippo haltingly walked over to the litter of other puppies, looking back at Inuyasha, who urged him on. Slowly, very slowly, he curled into a ball and lay beside Kikyo, falling asleep almost instantly.

Inuyasha awkwardly thanked her, and then fell back among the shadows, eventually running back to the forest, glad for the freedom that his mission had leant him. He ran back to the beach, where he sat on the dunes, breathing in the strong scent of the sea and tracing paths in the sand. Suddenly a surge of joy gripped him, and yapping he ran again.

He zoomed across the beach again and back through the forest, this time taking a path that led him to a grove of orange and yellow mangoes. Though his pack could not stomach them, he had discovered long ago that they tasted sweet and tangy, a complete change from raw meat, his primary diet.

He picked one of the heavy fruits off a branch and let his teeth sink into its sweet flesh. A stream of juice ran down his jaw and he grinned, utterly joyous.

To any civilized person, he would seem brutal, savage and strange, but one thing they would be able to tell was that Inuyasha, the human pup of uncertain origin, was utterly content in the comparative innocence that reined his life.

But, eventually, even the most sheltered child loses their innocence. Which is what was about to happen, because as Inuyasha left his mango grove, he fell inside a pit obscured by a carpet of leaves on hidden sticks. The human tribe had built it as a way to capture the wild pigs that live on the island, who serve as food to both the wolves and now the savages. Inuyasha fell in, twisted his ankle, and fell into the captivity of those whom he hated most in the world.

And once innocence is gone, no matter how hard you try, you can never get it back.


	2. Cages and Walls

Alright, we all know I have updating issues. Get over it.

**Caged Beasts, Chapter Two**

**Cages and Walls**

* * *

Kagome walked with some hesitation to the beach and took off her shoes. They were far too small for her, and there were red marks where they had cut into her pale feet.

She sat down on a rock, placing her shoes beside her, and she dipped her feet into the cool water. She sighed in relief. The coldness felt so good on her skin, and so she pulled up her dress a little and let her calves into the ocean.

She was so glad to be back on the beach. She shouldn't stay long, she knew, as savage wolves were everywhere, ready to attack and kill. She shuddered as she thought of those horrible beasts. They had killed a man in town a few years ago, a man with two small children and a wife. He had set out to explore the island, and had never come back. Months later they had found his bleached bones, with teeth-marks on them, evidence of the wolves' savagery. Ever since then, the women and children could not go near the forest and only go out on the beach in daylight, when there were men armed with guns to watch them from the towers that stood at the corners of the town's wall.

The town did not have a name. As they were the only humans in hundreds of miles, they did not need to have a special name for it. All the traders who stopped there just called it Island Town. There were quite a few traders who stopped off at Island Town, asking for repairs for their boats, supplies for their kitchens, and to see if any other ships had brought any letters for their sailors. Usually they stayed for a week, talking to the pretty girls, and occasionally going on a wolf hunt, if they were brave enough.

Kagome reluctantly took her feet out the water, and let them stay on the rock for a while to dry. She looked around, enjoying the sweet smell of the ocean and the sand and the fishes, glad to be out of the drudgery of house life, the oppression of church every day, and the irritating clamor of her step-children.

Kagome had married Hojo a few months ago. He was handsome, kind, and dull. She liked him more than all the other men on the island, and her father Naraku had approved. He had married them himself, Kagome wearing a new dress ordered from the mainland and Hojo grinning in his special made top hat. So she had found herself with three children, a husband fifteen years older than her, a house to clean, chores to do, God to serve, all at the age of sixteen.

Her father was the mayor of the Town, and he liked to see his daughter in church, a step behind Hojo, with her kids in a line behind her. She was an attribute.

The church bell sang out three long, mournful notes, then two quick ones.

Kagome jumped. That meant she had to go to the town square, as something had happened. She hoped no one else had died.

She ran to the small door in the wall and closed it behind her. Back in the safety of the Town, she hurried through the cobblestone streets, hitching up her dress and making her way quickly to the square.

Quite a crowd had gathered, but she managed to push her way to the front, where she saw the red hair of her husband's children. She felt a pang of guilt, as she was supposed to be watching them, but as they had all been screaming for things, she had left the two little girls in the charge of her oldest stepson, who was eleven.

She ran up to him now, panting a little, "What's going on, Souta?" she asked the boy.

"You were supposed to be back in a moment," he said sourly, glaring at her.

"I know, and I'm sorry," she lied, "I got distracted. Why did they do the assembly ring?"

"I don't know. They're bringing something."

Her stepdaughter, Rin, pulled on Kagome's dress, "I'm hungwy, Mama. I want a bwead."

"She isn't your Mama, stupid," growled her other stepdaughter, Sakura, "She's just Kagome. Mama's dead."

The child began to wail in horror, and Kagome rolled her eyes at Sakura and picked up the toddler, "I don't have any bread, Rin. I'll get you something when this commotion is all over."

Rin's cries remained piercing and sharp, and Kagome situated her on her hip, running her free hand through her hair. _Drat_, she thought, _I forgot my shoes on the beach._

Hojo and another man, Miroku, appeared from behind the church, carrying a heavy box between them, covered in a wolf skin. Kagome's father walked with them, his long black hair tied in a ponytail.

The noise of the crowd lulled, and then stopped altogether. Even Rin stopped crying, to look at the box, her tear streaked cheeks red and dirty.

Kagome, rapt, watched the box, as her father began to speak.

"Today, I have something to show you, my children." He said as the crowd gazed curiously at the spectacle in front of them, "God has sent us a trial. He has sent us test, to see if our teachings can penetrate the darkness of sin." He opened his arms and gazed up at the sky, his face a picture of bliss, "Today, in the mango grove, we have discovered a freak of nature, a cruel, sinful beast. Today we have our new purpose." He grinned at his followers, and told Hojo and Miroku, "Show them."

The two men obliged, pulling away the skin to show something truly strange inside the box.

A boy lay curled up there, his face tear streaked, and as light suddenly filled his eyes, he made a screeching noise that made Kagome flinch. He was strange looking. He had long, matted hair, white as the moon, which extended down his back. He was filthy, covered in scars, and utterly naked. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he snapped and growled at the crowd, screaming and wailing in what seemed to be anger and hate and frustration and pain. His teeth were not like normal humans', instead his incisors extended, sharp and deadly. His hands did not seem to have fingernails, they were more like claws, and his eyes were a strange, savage yellow. The crowd drew back in horror. Rin began to wail again.

Naraku gestured to the men, and they put the cover back on the cage. Instead of shutting up, the creature's yells grew more desperate, a few sobs creeping into the noises he was making.

"Horrible, yes." He said, conceding to the fact that the town was terrified of this beast. "But he is a man. We believe that he has been brought up by the wolves."

A murmur rippled through the crowd as if the information their mayor had given them was a pebble in the lake of their morbid curiosity.

"Our duty is clear, my people," he said, "We must teach this feral beast to be a docile Lamb of God. Tomorrow in church, I expect you all to have prayed for its soul, and also to have tried to think of ways to tame it." A grin spread across his holy face, "I apologize for having interrupted your days. You all may go back to what you were doing."

The crowd took a while to disperse, and the energy that filled the town was so palpable you could run a sword through it.

Kagome waited, hypnotized by the beast-boy's screams, ignoring the whine of Rin's crying and the scorn of her two other stepchildren. He seemed so utterly angry and betrayed that she felt like crying.

Hojo ran up to them, snapping her out of her reverie. "What do you think of that!" he asked Souta and Sakura and Rin, "Pretty interesting, right? I found him in our monkey trap. He was screaming and screaming, almost as bad as he is now. He bit Miroku in the hand."

The children brightened up. They all loved their father so much, and were transfixed by his energy.

"Come on, you lot, let's go home now." He said, grabbing Kagome's hand.

"Want bwead," said Rin petulantly, wriggling down from Kagome's hip.

"Alright, we'll get you bread," said Hojo, smiling. "Kagome, are you coming?" he asked, tugging at her hand.

Kagome blinked, and nodded, "Of course," she replied, and walked home with her family. But the creature's cries reverberated in her head until long after they stopped.


	3. Robert

The monsters take his cage and put him in a cold, stone cave. He tries to bite their paws as they carry it, succeeds once. The monster screams as red blood pours from the gash in his fingers, Inuyasha smells his blood, tastes it, the metallic, salty tang, and for a moment, can see the white bone and purple muscle. A grin of triumph makes its way across his face as the creatures drop his cage and run to their comrade, wrapping parts of their strange, removable skins on his wound. He licks his lips. Their blood doesn't taste as good as the wild pigs, but it satisfies him to know that his tormentors are suffering.

They beat him then, with sticks and long gray hairs that are sharp like claws, and when they leave him alone in his cage he just lies there, without the strength to whimper, more silent tears pouring down his cheeks. They cover his cage with the skins of his old friends, and leave two strange stones, one with a hole in it and filled with water, the other flat, with a strange smelling piece of meat on it.

He yearns for them now, as he never has before. There is an ache in the pit of his ribs, a longing to be back with his pack that makes him want to howl his sorrows to the moon. It actually hurts him, he realizes, to be away from them, away from their soft coats and warm, smelly breath. He wants Kikyo, and Jaken, and Hiten and Maten, and Yura and Kirara.

Snuffling, he pulls his bloody legs into his chest and tries to sleep. He only dozes; most of the night he wakes up, disoriented, and then he remembers where he is.

He decides to stop eating, which makes his days in that cage worse. He watches as his skin grows tight on his bones and growls whenever anyone comes near his cage, especially those who come with food.

He learns the faces of the humans; there is one, who comes and sees him most often, and he calls it Long Hair. Long Hair sometimes sits on a stool near his cage, with a strange square plant with many, many leaves in it and no stem, and two red things on the outside of it with shiny sun colored symbols on it. He makes human noises at the plant, filling some ritual that Inuyasha cannot hope to understand. He just talks to it, occasionally looking up at Inuyasha in his prison and baring his teeth. There is another human, the same one who he sank his teeth into, who brings him his food and takes away the old plates. Inuyasha calls that one Screamer.

No one dares come near his cage. Screamer holds his food on a stick, grudgingly pushing the meat and the water between the bars.

He grows thinner, and weaker, and hungrier. He hopes he is dying, as he lies in his corner of the cage, falling into shallow dozes and waking when he hears someone coming. He begins to think he actually is dying. He no longer can do anything but growl when he sees the creatures, his bones are too tired and he aches.

One day, as he lies in that sunless prison, he hears different sorts of noises coming from the stone passageway, the footfalls are lighter.

He opens one eye, and regards with disgust, a human he had not seen before. It has long, thick black fur on the top of her head, and strange blue eyes. The multicolored, changeable fur that all humans wear about them is different from the other creatures, long, flowy, hiding its legs. He deduces, in his slow minded state, that it is female.

She sits on the floor, ignoring the stool used by Long-Hair. Her paws, so alike to Inuyasha's and yet so clean and unbent, reach into her blue skins at her waist, and pull out a mango.

His eyes widen.

She takes a sharp, shiny thing from another part of her skin, that Inuyasha can only deduce is some sort of magical stone, and very neatly slices a small piece off the fruit. Her fingers, stained yellow and sticky with juice, ever so slowly squeeze between the bars and towards his mouth.

He bites her then, hard on her first two fingers. Blood-scent fills his nostrils, and his yellow eyes focus on the tiny droplets that are falling onto the mango.

The female winces a little, and a grunt comes out of her, but she does not scream, she only pushes the fruit into Inuyasha's mouth. Bravefingers, he decides to call her, and he lets her feed him the rest of the fruit. He is too tired to object.

When it is done, she sucks on her hand, healing it a little. He is surprised to see a human licking its wounds, so wolf-like.

She looks at him then, with very blue eyes, and makes a noise with her mouth. It sounds different than the other human voices, not monotone or screechy, but musical, like bird song.

He meets her gaze aggressively, with his amber eyes, and then confusion clouds them. Something in her eyes makes him think of things he had forgotten long ago.

Blue eyes, black hair, dress, petticoats, shoes, sea smell, ship, sail, wooden planks, clinging to the hem of someone called Mother's skirt. We're going to make a new life for ourselves, comb, soap, stinging eyes, cry. Go play with girl, play with rope, play with sailors, play with Daddy, pretend about things. Pull her hair. Make her cry a little, be a gentleman. Happy birthday. Flashes of things that were before Sesshoumaru and wolves and island. Inuyasha's eyes widen. He shakes a little.

Her eyes widen too, and she touches his dirty face with her clean white hand. She says his name then, a strange memory of things he used to be, an echo. "Robert," she says, "Robert."


End file.
